Hiten Barman

Hiten Barman, son of Maneswar and Rajabala Barman, was born on 21 June 1950 at Gopalpur in Cooch Behar district.^[2]

Educated at Mathabhanga High School, he passed Higher Secondary and Junior Basic Training, and became a teacher.^[2]

He married Kalpana in 1983 and they have two sons.^[2]

He entered politics at a young age in 1972, when he was studying at Ananda Chandra College in Jalpaiguri. Initially involved in student politics, he subsequently joined the Forward Bloc. Hailing from a peasant family he emerged as the saha-sabhapati of Mathabhanga Panchayat Samiti. In the 1996 Lok Sabha election, he contested as a candidate of the Forward Bloc (Socialist) led by Kamal Guha. He faced defeat then but was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2004 from the Cooch Behar seat as a Forward Bloc candidate.^[3][4]

In 2009, the Forward Bloc refused to renominate their sitting MP. This aggrieved him and he left the party and later joined the Trinamool Congress.^[3][5] In 2011, he was elected to the state assembly on a Trinamool Congress ticket from the Sitalkuchi (Vidhan Sabha constituency).^[6] He was made the Forest Minister in 2011 but was dropped in a reshuffle in 2013.^[3][7][8]